Summary: The
sun sets by around quarter past four. By seven the group starts trickling in and
settles around the bamboo bonfire. Bamboo burns different from most wood. It
burns fast, and with a faint whistle as all the sap comes frothing out from the
other side. The burnt bits slowly bend backwards and gently curve towards the
sky and give it a last glimpse. Then they fall noiselessly to the ground.

Around the burning bamboo sit a group of farmers. These famers, men and women,
have gathered together at the house of the person whose land they worked on
today. As payment or rather as a token of thanks, this person cooks them a
feast.

In other footage you can see the farmers sing as they work. Where they thrash
and winnow and carry heavy bags of paddy up steep hills and all the while they
are singing. The songs during work are more like grunts and wails, sounds of
pain and exhaustion wrenched out of their bodies in the form of polyphonic
harmonies. The focus is on the work.

In the evening however, they relax. They chat a while, exchange stories, laugh,
flirt and holler every now and then, as you see towards the end of the video. It's
a sound of joy, of abandon, a sound that tells all those who are afraid at
night to not worry and sleep well as there is someone else who is awake .